Semi-Nude Lying on Her Stomach, 1910
Pencil and blue and red crayon on Japan paper 37 × 56.3 cm
Private collection
For Klimt, drawing women was an obsession. In addition to a large number of portrait studies and composition sketches of Vienna's society ladies, he also created countless erotic sheets. He always had several models in his studio, and every day, in addition to his work on his portraits, he would draw them in a wide variety of poses, dressed, half-dressed or as nudes. The reclining woman who appears to be hovering was a recurring motif. Here Klimt can be seen concentrating on the outline. In his drawings, contours became increasingly freely drawn as he confidently and playfully explored the field of tension between volumes and surface, between the drawing and the paper and background. His treatment of the line was revolutionary and led the way for the younger artists Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka.
The female figure flows diagonally across the sheet; her hitched-up gown that covers her lower legs swirls around her. The folds and patterns of the fabric emphasise her nudity, which she displays openly and provocatively to the viewer's gaze. The variety of the linework is overwhelming. Precise, pulsating colours in black and red create the volumes of the body forms in masterly fashion, without the need for Klimt to use assisting grey shading. When he searches for the line and repositions it, as on the elbow on the right, the first lines remain. The interplay with the corrections bestows a particular charm on the drawing. A free interplay of lines - curves, whorls and loops - is revealed in the puffy folds of the fabric. Klimt describes the woman's hairstyle with lightly flowing contours; then he fills the outline with a confusion of blue lines to indicate the mass of curls. White lines are added on a further graphic layer and lend the fabric more volume and airiness.
Klimt underlines the woman's pudenda in red. This serves as counterpoint to the dark eyes beneath the powerful eyebrows, whose lascivious gaze is directed dreamily sideways into emptiness, and the red painted lips. Klimt also accents with red the model's bracelets and hair as well as the folds and ornamentation on the fabric. Although the couch on which she is lying has not been indicated, we nonetheless have the impression we can perceive its presence. Thus Klimt creates a balanced equilibrium of a figure that is half-lying and half-hovering.
Neue Galerie New York
